Findings of Croke Park review into Donegal GAA to be presented

The findings of the Croke Park review into Donegal GAA will be presented on Tuesday evening to county committee.

GAA Director General Tom Ryan addressed the clubs of the county in Convoy in April, with Shane Flanagan, the GAA’s Director of Coaching Games Development; Jack Cooney, National Player Development Lead and Ulster Council president Ciaran McLaughlin all in attendance.

The review, announced in March, covers the Donegal GAA Academy, as well as both finance and governance. The meeting will take place in Jackson’s Hotel in Ballybofey.

Clubs have been told that even of their chairperson or secretary are not county committee members, they may attend. The review findings will precede the June County Committee meeting.

At March’s special sitting of Donegal County Committee, it was agreed that an approach would be made to Karl Lacey to ask him to return to his role as head of the Academy. Lacey, who was over the coaching of players from U-14 level up to U-20, resigned from his position in February and was followed by over 35 coaches from the Academy in a show of solidarity.

“We wish to clearly state that there is no suggestion of any misconduct relating to Karl or academy personnel,” read a Donegal County Board statement at the time. “We also most strongly caution against and condemn any such suggestion. All finances and governance of the academy have always been the sole responsibility of the County Committee.

“We look forward to working through the recent issues with our academy personnel and building on the great work achieved until this point. We once again thank Karl Lacey for his outstanding and exemplary efforts to date, as a strong role model for all that is good in our games.

“We wish to state it is the express wish of our County Committee that Karl and the coaches would return and we are working hard and are hopeful that they will reconsider their positions.

“We acknowledge this has been a difficult time for all concerned. The GAA in Donegal should be a place where excellence is the standard and that we all play our part in ensuring this happens.”